eight
landon goes.

THAT NIGHT, ISABELLE heads to the honor council meeting, nervously playing with a strand of her blonde hair. Emma, Josie, Hope, Kaleb, and Rafael are already there when she arrives, and she looks at them apologetically. "Sorry I'm late. I was studying."

That part's a lie. She was analyzing the results of Landon's blood tests, and was surprised by what she'd found. There's nothing extraordinary about his results. Nothing. The results look like that of a mundane's. Hope and Emma had also found that Landon's physical abilities aren't supernatural. But he can't be a mundane if he's immune to compulsion without vervain. It's simply not possible.

Isabelle takes her seat at the table, avoiding making eye contact with anyone as she does so. She's not completely sure how she's going to vote about Landon's fate. He can't be a harmless mundane, so he could be a dangerous supernatural and just not know it yet. Being at the school could help him, but she can't help but wonder if he's safe here. Especially since Jed had beat him up earlier in a fit of rage. Landon's fine, but what if Jed hadn't snapped out of his fit of rage and ran away to cool off?

"Who even voted for them?" Kaleb remarks, motioning to Isabelle and Hope curiously.

"We ran unopposed."

"We didn't have any competition since we're the only tribrid and witch with angelic blood at the school," Isabelle adds on to what Hope said as Emma uses her powers to levitate a balance scale into the air. She then hands one chip with the Salvatore logo to each honor council member.

"We're here to discuss if Landon should be allowed to stay at the school. My vote, on behalf of the lower school, is to err on the side of inclusion. We exist to help kids like him. Which is what I'm going to do now. I have a search party out looking for Jed. As you've all seen, violence leads to more violence. If you'll excuse me."

After dropping her chip into the yes side, she leaves. Kaleb then glances around the room, looking bored. "All right, who wants to start?"

"Landon has to go," Hope decides as Isabelle's head snaps up towards her, confused. Isabelle had taken notice of the fact that Hope seemed to be warming up to Landon earlier today. So why does she want him to go?

"Never thought I'd be saying this, but... Hope's right," Kaleb exclaims, having no idea how wrong he is. "Humans refuse to make a place for us in their world. We start letting them in, it's only a matter of time before they take this place from us, too."

He puts his chip in the no side as Rafael looks at him, holding back his anger. Isabelle heaves a sigh, looking over at Kaleb. "We don't know for sure if Landon's a mundane."

"You can't prove to me he's not," Kaleb counters, knowing Isabelle has no real evidence that Landon's not a mundane. He then puts his chip in the no side. "Landon goes."

"Landon is my brother. He's the only reason I'm alive. He can't go back to human life knowing that magic and dragons exist. We took his whole crappy life from him. Be awful selfish of us not to give him one to replace it."

Rafael puts his chip in the yes side as Isabelle hears his pulse quicken. He's nervous, the Castiel girl thinks, knowing how much Landon matters to him. Hope notices Isabelle's somber face, and frowns.

"Doesn't matter how much we want him to stay. Look what one mad wolf did to him. Earlier, I asked him if he felt safe here. He said, 'yes.' He was lying. This place is dangerous for him, and even he knows it. You can't always be there to protect him, Rafael. If he stays, it's on all of us. It is all of our responsibility to protect him. Can we honestly say we believe every one of us can handle that kind of a responsibility?"

Hope puts her chip in the no section before they all look at Josie and Isabelle, waiting for either of them to speak up. Josie notices how Isabelle's mind is racing, so she pipes up, putting her chip in the no section. "Since Landon walked through those doors, my sister, my father and I have almost died. We don't really know what Landon is, so we can't really say if we know if he's dangerous or not. Raf, this isn't about who's friends with who or who you like. This school is family, and I am not putting my family in danger again."

The room falls silent as everybody turn to look at the Castiel girl, knowing Landon's fate is in her hands. Kaleb then smirks at her. "Looks like it's on you, Isabelle."

"Izzy," Rafael whispers, making Isabelle take a deep breath. "Please."

When the girl walked in the door, she wasn't sure what she was gonna vote, but after listening to all of her friends, everything is crystal clear. She makes eye contact Rafael, an apologetic look on her face as she puts her chip in the no section. "I can't, in good faith, say that Landon isn't dangerous. So I can't let him stay."

Rafael lets out a grunt, jumping to his feet and punching the table with his fist. Hard. Kaleb instinctively stands up, ready to stop Rafael at any moment as the wolf gets in his face. Isabelle, however, knows he'll actually hurt Kaleb, so she shakes her head at him. "Raf, calm down."

Rafael laughs, narrowing his eyes at her. "You know what, I'm done with all of y'all."

UNEDITED